UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN QUEENSLAND
MGT8022 PROJECT-BASED MANAGEMENT
ASSIGNMENT 1
Assessment tasks for MGT8022
Assignment 1 for this course is an essay and requires students to obtain sufficient information on a project of their choice to carry out a critical analysis on the documented ‘business case’ of that project. Your task is to consider whether the business case developed by the project reflects ‘best practice’ as defined by the project management literature. Students should choose a project as early as possible after reading the requirements of assignment 1. The same project can be used for both assignments 1 and 2.
Assignment 2 for this course is a report and requires students to obtain sufficient information on a project of their choice to carry out a critical analysis of the ‘project management plan’. Students should choose a project as early as possible after reading the requirements of assignment 2. Students may use the same project for assignment 1 and assignment 2, or they may choose different projects.
Note: there is NO examination for this course so the assignments carry a heavy weighting.
Assignment 1
Word count: 2000 words approximately (excluding figures, tables and reference list)
The structure of your essay document is as follows:
Assignment Mark Sheet (download this from the Assessment tab on the study desk)
Title page (course details, author details, due date, etc. in the style of a professional document)
Essay
The focus of this essay is the 'business case'. Make sure you clearly understand what a project business case is, and its contents, before you try to complete this assignment.
Using a wide variety of academic literature, in the form of an essay critically analyse whether your project’s chosen business case fulfils the purpose of a project business case as stated by the Association for Project Management (2006, p. 129):
It has been suggested that a project business case provides ‘justification for undertaking a project, in terms of evaluating the benefit, cost and risk of alternative options and the rationale for the preferred solution. Its purpose is to obtain management commitment and approval for investment in the project. The business case is owned by the (project) sponsor’.
(Source: Association for Project Management 2006, Body of Knowledge, 5th edn, APM, UK)
Justify your critical analysis using evidence from the literature (the literature includes text books, journal articles etc. that have some ‘academic validity’). The body of your essay should compare the content recommended for a project business case (as per the literature) with your chosen project business case.
It is expected that you would provide an introduction, the body of your essay, and conclusion and recommendations in this section. You may use headings for sections if you wish.
Even though assignment 1 is an essay format, you may use diagrams and tables if necessary to reduce word count and to communicate your analysis more clearly. Appendices would not normally be expected with an essay. If you have any appendices, they should be attached to the essay after the list of references. They should be numbered sequentially, e.g. Appendix 1, Appendix
2, etc.
Note: You do not need to include a copy of your project’s business case with your assignment submission.
Reference list
It is recommended that you use at least 15 quality references in your critical analysis. These should be resources you have actually cited in your essay. All referencing in your assignment should comply with USQ Harvard. Refer https://www.usq.edu.au/library/referencing/harvard-agps-referencing-guide
Formatting
As a general guide, you can follow the formatting guidelines for essays as outlined in the Communication Skills Handbook:
Summers, J & Smith, B 2014, Communication skills handbook, 4th edn, John Wiley and Sons Australia, Ltd, Brisbane.
What is an essay?
For assistance in writing essays, there are many guides on university websites.
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/students/learning/alludocuments/EssayWritingVisualGuide.pdf http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ld/resources/writing/writing-essays-tour http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/writing/general/essay/index.xml http://emedia.rmit.edu.au/learninglab/content/essay-writing
Submission details
Throughout the materials, reference may be made to the mode of study selected by students.
‘Online’ students are those who are enrolled in the course in ‘WEB’ mode. This mode may not always be available.
‘On-campus’ students are those who are enrolled in the course in ‘ONC’ mode. This mode may not always be available.
? Submission of assessment. All students (regardless of mode) must submit Assignments 1 and 2 electronically using the electronic assignment submission facility. This is accessed from the assessment page on the StudyDesk for this course. Assignments will not be accepted by email or in hard copy unless there are extenuating circumstances and prior approval is gained from the course examiner.
? Electronic mark sheet – students must use the MGT8022 electronic assignment mark sheet for assignments 1 and 2 that are provided as part of the StudyDesk course materials as it contains the marking criteria. Do not use generic USQ cover sheets that may be available for other courses. Do not use generic PDF cover sheets which are only intended for courses where hard copy submissions are required.
? File naming – electronic files should follow the file-naming protocols detailed on the mark sheet.
? Due date – submission should be completed prior to midnight (Toowoomba time) on the due date specified in the study schedule. Check the time difference. The time in Toowoomba is indicated on the StudyDesk.
? File types – Electronic copies of assignments may be submitted in various file formats which are defined in the electronic assignment submission facility for each course. Check to ensure that your assignment complies with the requirements.
? Originality Report from Turnitin – Assignment 1 and Assignment 2 must be accompanied by an ‘Originality Report’ from Turnitin. Students will have to download the report as per the instructions below. NOTE: this is not the ‘receipt’ that you receive when you upload the assignment. Follow the instructions to download a full ‘ORIGINALITY’ report from the Turnitin site. Assignment submissions that do not include an Originality Report generated by Turnitin will not be marked.
Originality Report from Turnitin for assignments 1 and 2
Some USQ courses are running a Turnitin submission process through the study desk but the project management core courses do not use this process.
If there is no Originality Report with assignment 1 or 2, you will receive no marks.
The brief instructions below should be sufficient to check your assignment and download an originality report. However, if you have problems more detailed information is available from Turnitin at http://www.turnitin.com/en_us/support/help-center/general-articles.
Briefly, the steps to obtain an Originality Report from Turnitin comprise the following:
1. Create a separate Turnitin version of your assignment with a new file name. Follow the instructions below.
2. If you have not previously done so, register with Turnitin at www.turnitin.com using an email address of your own choosing and a password of your own
choosing. You do not have to use your USQ UConnect username and password.
3. Log in and access the course using the class ID and password provided below.
4. Submit your assignment and exit Turnitin for a least 30 minutes.
5. Log into Turnitin again after this period, and then download the Originality Report. The Originality Report will be in HTML or PDF format and will contain a percentage score for material that is common with other sources. You cannot resubmit to Turitin to try to revise the score. If you try to submit any other way, it will show a score of 100%.
6. Submit your Originality Report when you lodge your assignment.
Information on how to create a separate Turnitin version of your assignment
Turnitin will compare your assignment to all other assignments submitted to Turnitin from USQ and all other universities. It will also compare it with information publicly available and with other documents contained within Turnitin. Turnitin creates a report showing the level of material that is NOT ‘original’ and this is indicated on a scale of zero to 100%. The lower the percentage the better.
IMPORTANT NOTE: To minimise the extent of material that shows as not being your original work, create a separate assignment file for Turnitin (rename this file so you can differentiate between your assignment file and the Turnitin file), and amend it as follows:
? If you have previously attached the USQ electronic mark sheet, remove it so it does not show as common material.
? Delete any other mark sheet or cover sheet so the text starts at ‘Executive Summary’.
? You must include your name and Student number at the top of the document for identification.
? Delete all appendices – the text should now finish at the end of the List of References. You are now ready to submit the assignment file to Turnitin.
To register as new student or to log in
? Go to http://www.turnitin.com .
? If you are not an existing user, select ‘New User’ and follow instructions to register.
? Simply enter an email address of your choosing and create a password (you do not have to use the USQ UConnect username and password).
? Register using your enrolled student name – do not use an alias.
Once you are registered you can simply enter that email address and password to log in to the Turnitin website at any time.
To access the course – Class ID and Password
? Click on ‘Enrol in a class’
? Insert class ID – 15584455
? Insert class password – mgt8022
? You may be asked for your name if you have not provided this before – please use your name that you use in normal USQ communications. Do not use aliases.
To submit assignments 1 and 2
? Click on ‘Submit’ icon for required assignment (1 or 2).
? Select ‘Single file upload’.
? Insert your first name as per USQ student records (if not automatically inserted).
? Insert your last (family) name as per USQ student records (if not automatically inserted). DO NOT USE AN ALIAS.
? Insert submission title (e.g. A1, Assignment 1, or similar to identify assignment).
? Make sure your file complies with the ‘requirements for single file upload’ listed by Turnitin on this page.
? Browse to locate the assignment file on your computer (select the file that has been adapted for submission to Turnitin with no mark sheet and no
appendices).
? Click on ‘Upload’.
? Wait for file to upload (indicated by progress bar).
? Preview submission in window to ensure that file has loaded properly.
? Click on ‘Submit’.
? Wait for file to upload.
? Go back to Portfolio.
? Ensure that file shows as submitted (file title and date of submission are displayed) (if this has not happened, you may have to go back and repeat the
submission process).
? Log out.
? You will receive an email from Turnitin to confirm submission.
To access your Originality Report and interpretation of report
? Return to Turnitin at a later time to check originality report (wait for at least 30 minutes) http://www.turnitin.com .
? Under the tab ‘My Classes’, click on the required class code from the list under ‘enter a class’.
? Details of your submissions will show up.
? If the assignment has been checked, a percentage will be shown in a box under ‘Originality’.
? Click on the number that shows the percentage of material that comes from other sources (e.g. 12%).
? Read the Originality Report which identifies any material from external sources and the level of material from that source (it is colour coded and easy to read).
? There is no fixed percentage that represents ‘plagiarism’.
? Do not worry about material that you have ‘quoted’ in the assignment or material that is clearly indicated as coming from a source where a citation has been provided.
? A document might legitimately contain material that has been quoted or cited and a higher percentage might be acceptable.
? If the percentage is above 10%, examine your assignment to ensure that materials are properly cited, or if there is material that can be stated in your words rather than the words of others. It is not possible to resubmit your
assignment again to obtain additional reports.
? You can explore this report and the sources that have been indicated.
? Save a copy of the report to your computer by clicking on the ‘Download’ arrow in the top RH corner and select ‘OK’.
? Select Save and choose a folder to which the file can be saved (this should be an HTML file).
? If the report is generated as a PDF, it will be of a large size. Select ‘Text only report’ where indicated on the web page, and try to download the HTML version to reduce file size.
? Go to http://www.plagiarism.org/ to read about plagiarism and how to avoid being accused of it.
? You are not able to resubmit your assignment to Turnitin for further checking. You are only allowed one submission per assignment. Do not submit documents under a different user name as it will be compared to your previous submissions.
Submission of Originality report through the assignment submission facility with assignments 1 and 2
? When you submit your assignments 1 and 2 for marking, submit the Turnitin Report as well.
? You may submit it as a separate file, or you may prefer to ‘zip’ the assignment files and the HTML Turnitin file into a single folder to simplify submission.
Support
? If you have problems with submission of your assignment for checking or with downloading an originality report, there is a link to the Turnitin HelpDesk at the bottom of the Turnitin web pages. You can seek assistance there. Simply follow
the instructions.
? If Turnitin is unable to assist, you can contact USQ for support through UConnect.